Short–term outcomes of laparoscopic colorectal cancer surgery in elderly patients. -Is it really safe in elderly patients with severe comorbidities?-

Abstract Introduction We aimed to assess the safety and validity of laparoscopic colorectal surgery (LCS) in elderly patients focusing on severe postoperative complications.In addition, we compared multiple preoperative risk scoring tools to identify the optimal tool forpredicting postoperative complications. Methods Medical records of 493 patients who underwent LCS or open colorectal surgery (OCS) were retrospectively reviewed and they were divided into four groups based on their age and procedure: group E/LCS (age ≥ 80 years and LCS), group Y/LCS (age  Results The incidence of postoperative complications was significantly lower in group E/LCS than in groups E/OCS and Y/OCS. Respiratory and cardiovascular complications were not observed in E/LCS, even though patients had severe cardiovascular comorbidities. Regarding the comparison of risk scoring tools, all of the risk scoring tools did not differ between two groups except SSS. Conclusion There is a possibility that the severity of heart failure does not affect postoperative complications in LCS. Regarding risk scoring tools, there was no suitable preoperative risk scoring tool which gives an advice on if we can perform LCS safely.